Mom finds a buttiful reminder of her son 2 years after he left for college

In a now-viral tweet, a mom is sharing the moment she came across her son's long-running practical joke and inspiring people to get in on the fun.

Kim Baker's 19-year-old son has always been the type to play goofy pranks and practical jokes, especially if the goal is to make his younger sister, 15, laugh.

"My daughter has this huge belly laugh. She's serious most of the time, but if you get her laughing it's like a prize," Baker told TODAY Parents. "I think one of my son's favorite things to do is make his sister laugh."

The origin of the prank

For his sister's 13th birthday, Baker's son decided to cut out 200 small pieces of paper with the word "butt" on them, then hide them in various places around their home in Seattle, Washington.

"When she was little, my daughter loved to collect things — rock collections and button collections and those types of things," Baker explained. "I think he was hoping she would accumulate all these butts, and she did for a while! She had a little velvet bag and she'd put the butts in there for about a year before she gave up."

A year later, Baker's son went off to college in Colorado. The hidden butts stayed behind.

The prank keeps on going

Two years after his birthday prank, Baker was changing the batteries in the family's secondary remote control when she found Butt No. 115, hidden inside the remote along with the defunct batteries.

"It made me laugh and smile," Baker said, chuckling. "It was like this nice little wave from him. He's gone, but there are always those little reminders."

When Baker texted her son to tell her she accidentally found Butt No. 115, he shared that he had hoped his sister would have "kept better track of the number" of butts discovered.

"I think he was kind of hoping that we would have like a catalog of the butts that were still missing," Baker said, laughing. "A butt spreadsheet."

Without a spreadsheet, Baker says she doesn't know how many butts are still hidden around the house, though she "would guess there's still probably 40 around somewhere."

"I mean, that's what a good prank is, right?" she added. "It's spreading surprise and kindness and excitement, instead of embarrassment or victimization."

In response to Baker's tweet, people have been describing their own long-running pranks and sharing how Baker's son has inspired them.

"This reminds me of when my daughter placed 20+ cutouts of Keanu Reeves around the house for my husband’s birthday," one woman responded. "It was 2 years ago, so I think we have found them all."

"When I left my last job, I stuck bee stickers all over the office. Rumor is they are still finding them," another woman shared.

"I love the ripple effect," Baker said. "Somebody said their kid was reading over his shoulder and he started writing out 200 butts. It's not a bad week when you've inspired this kind of silliness in people."

A family of pranksters

Baker says her son and daughter have always had "a great dynamic their whole life."

"They get along great, and it's just been really sweet," Baker said, who shared that her daughter was adopted from Guatemala when her son was 4. "You know, they get on each other's nerves and everything, but for the most part they've just been friends and that's really what you hope for with your kids."

Baker says her daughter was sad when her son left for college last year, adding that she "definitely missed him and asked to FaceTime with him" often.

"It was really kind of a gut punch," the mom added. "He has a lot of energy and having him out of the house felt like there was a little bit of a vacuum — it was an adjustment."

All Baker's daughter could do when her mom shared that she found one of the 200 butts, though, was sigh.

"She doesn't really understand all the hype about this," Baker said. "For her it just seems like a really normal thing for her brother to do."

Baker is a published author and, when her son was 10 years old, she was writing her book "Pickle: The (Formerly) Anonymous Prank Club of Fountain Point Middle School."

"When I was researching for it, I was looking for non-victim pranks — performative, silly stuff," Baker said. "So, this is my fault."

When Baker asked her son if he was comfortable with her being interviewed about his 200-butts prank, he responded: "As long as they know I think butts are hilarious."

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This article was originally published on TODAY.com